Just a quick heads-up… The Psyjnir Complex is back online. (No new content – yet… but the name resolves again, and the Hotline server is accessible again.)

Wow. That’s all I have to say. Update: Credit where credit is due: Jester asked this, then this, a couple of weeks ago. Thanks, Psyrixx.

That Weasel has put up mirrors of Hurricane Halo in two different formats (soon to be 3): the original, plus a re-encoded .wmv file (for Windows Media Player 8, weighing in at 11.6 mb) have been added. (A half-size QT5 version is apparently coming.) You can find the links on That Weasel Television’s mirror page. (We’ve added the links, gratefully, to our mirror list.) Update: Goodness, it’s .wmv night. Alan Wu has also re-encoded Hurricane Halo into .wmv format (this one is compatible with v7, and weighs in at 10.9 mb), and has added this to his Project MJOLNIR site. (He’s also put up both versions of the Rocket Dance movie.) We’ve updated all relevant mirror lists. Update 2: Mr. Zarquon has also mirrored Hurricane Halo, as well as the large versions of ‘Halo: The Movie‘ and the Rocket Dance movie. Woohoo!

There’s a huge backlog of tricks (again) – but rather than simply making them LATER, I’m gonna put up the two I formatted today, and get to some more tomorrow. Check out the Gameplay Tricks page for the latest – some interesting views from INSIDE various Pelicans… and some amazing jump work. More on the way!

xbox.com has posted a small interview with Max Hoberman, our friendly neighbourhood Online Guy. Here’s a quote:

S: What were some of the greatest challenges to overcome during production?

MH: Two things come to mind. First, switching from the PC to the Xbox necessitated a huge change in the direction we were going with Halo. Traditionally we implement the multiplayer game first, then single player. When we started developing on the Xbox we changed our primary focus to single player. Fortunately the team did a great job, and the multiplayer implementation didn’t suffer too much. Second, getting the interface right just the controls, but the way information is delivered to the player. If we do the job well, you’ll barely notice the user interface at all if we blow it, it’s something everyone complains about.

Go here for the full interview. Pax.

The daily dose of Fan Fiction:

• Goin’ To War!, by Slith
• Combat Revolved, Chapter 2, by eL diAbLo
• Project: Rebirth, by John Parker
• The Saga Continues: Halo 2 Chapter 2, by Edward Parker
• The Long Ride Home part 2, by Joshua Barreto

If this ever slows up, I can get back to formatting Gameplay Tricks…

Dolbex took some artwork from the Truth and Reconciliation website, played with it a bit, and turned out this nice desktop for our Wallpaper collection. Take a look…

Macleans.ca, the website for a leading Canadian news magazine, has put up a Halo review – they gave it 5/5 (the best of any of the 4 games they reviewed). We’ve added it to our Reviews database. Thanks to Ph.D. for the heads-up!

Thanks muchly to SonicStorm and the Battleground: Halo crew – the latest movie, ‘Halo Hurricane’, now has another set of download links at FilePlanet. We’ve started a mirror list, to provide easy access to existing mirrors. More as we hear about ’em! Update: Alan Wu (no relation) points out that his Project MJOLNIR now has mirrors for both Hurricane Halo and the .wmv version of ‘Halo: The Movie‘. Links have been added to the respective mirror pages. Thanks, Alan!

A new movie has hit the scene… and it’s a biggie. 21 megs, almost 7 minutes long… with some great stunts, weird glitches, and a large number of laugh-out-loud moments. As of now, there’s exactly one host – our favorite savior, mythica.org. You folks have been known to peg even that prodigious pipe, though… so anyone who can mirror this, eternal gratefulness (at least until the next one comes along) will be yours. Drop us a line and we’ll hook you up. For right now, go visit mythica.org and download Halo Hurricane, from Mark Mendenhall… and crank it up. Update: Appleicious has graciously put up a mirror on his university webspace – hopefully, it won’t get crushed before more come in.

Another pair of desktop images from Eric Gandhi – find ’em in our Wallpaper section.

Just a small note of concern… this peep stuff is getting a little out of hand; you people are starting to scare me.

Thanks to Djoey.154, who pointed out that the Xbox.com Winamp skin easter egg page now contains a second Halo track for your listening pleasure. Worth a look!

Another batch of Fan Fiction – it’s pretty scary how much you guys write…

• The Renegade Marines, Part X, by Shadow
• The Capture, by Jason Pridgen
• Check, please, by Kellen Squire
• The Rookie, Chapter 3, by The British Commando

Go to it!

Whoa! I accidentally hit an old bookmark… and discovered that Rampancy.net is back online! (Okay, it’s BEEN online, at rampancy.synfibers.com, all this time… but the original name works again.) The domain hasn’t been renewed yet, so who knows how LONG it’ll be there… but hey, you should go visit, it was a great site that is now suffering from neglect.

Eep – we missed this one. Xbox Xtreme [dot] Net has put up a new Halo review – they gave it a 10/10, and used a lot of exclamation points to describe it. We’ve added the review to the Reviews Database. (In fact, looking at their site, the original Halo review they posted – with a rating of a 9.5 – is no longer online… but there are now 3 Halo reviews, all with a rating of 10. This is too confusing for us, so we’re going to leave the original for the time being, and add this newest one.)

PanZer is attempting to compile a database of all the human and grunt dialog lines in Halo. Never mind that Marty has told us there are over 5000… he’s trying it, and he needs your help. Stop by the database, and see what you can do!

Yesterday, Frogblast posted a series of movies chronicling his experiments with the Blue Beams of Death on the level Halo (the series will show up on the Tricks page soon)… not long after, Dark Helmet sent in a new movie to iBonk.com, showing what happens when you Warthog-Jump into one of the blue beams. That hog’s… GONE! Whoa.

Appleicious, one of the participants at last week’s Battle of the Bay, has put up several Halo movies for download – both flavors of ‘Halo: The Movie‘, the new Movie Teaser, and both flavors of the Rocket Dance vid (which he’s in). We’ve added relevant links to all mirror pages, so if you’re having trouble getting these films, you have a new place to try!

The One-Shots page finally got its update – 8 new images, submitted up to 3 weeks ago. (They’re all dated today, because it makes more sense to me that way.) Check ’em out! Next up – the 9 new tricks submitted since Friday’s major update… (look for it tomorrow, or the next day.) Note: If I missed your One-Shot submission (and I very well could have), drop me some mail. I’ll get it up in the next batch, or I’ll explain to you why not.